Improvement in water-wheels



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN M. MILLER, OF HAMILTON, OHIO.

iMPaovEMi-:NT 1N WATER-WHEELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,355, dated January 6, 1863.

To a/ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN M. MILLER, of Hamilton, in the county of Butler and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful-Improvement in Water-Wheels, and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the sa1ne,'reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is avertical section of my improved apparatus, taken in the plane ofmotion. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of a common overshot wheel adapted for the same fall and volume. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary section, on a larger scale, illustrating more clearly` the peculiar form of buckets in my improved apparatus.

Similar letters of reference in the several views illustrate corresponding parts.

The object of my improvement is to avai the full power of the descending column of water more fully than is attainable in the customary forms of breast or overshot waterwheels; and myinvention consists in the provision of an endless chain of buckets hung upon suitable pulleys, the buckets being so formed and adapted to each other as to prevent the escape of water between bucket and bucket, the whole being so arranged as to retain the water undischarged until the foot of the fall is reached. y

The invention further consists in an improved manner of attaching the buckets so that they may tend to hang in a vertical position.

To enable others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to fully understand and use `the same, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A is the main or driving pulley. B is a stretcher-pulley. G are buckets having eyes D, which receive gudgeons Dl of the bucket next beneath, which gudgeons are so situated as to suspend the bucket vertically. The gudgeons rest in notches E in the peripheries of the pulleys. Each bucket has two wings or sheaths, F, which, by overlapping the sides of the contiguous bucket, prevent the spillage of water between the buckets. Each bucket is thus adapted to catch any water which may escape from the one above, and each bucket, instead of commencing to spill the moment it passes the plane ofthe axis, retains its full charge of water until it reaches the bottom.

Having thus described my invention, the following is what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In combination with the pulleys A and B, an endless chain ofbuckets, C, constructed as described, with 'overlapping wings F, to prevent the waste of water, the whole operating in the manner and for the purposes set forth.

2. Connecting the said buckets O by gudgeons DI', fitting in eyes D, the said parts being located directly over the center of the bucket when full,and vin other respects so arranged that each bucket shall be suspended in a perpendicular position, as explained.

In testimony of which invention I hereunto set my hand and seal, at the city of Hainilton, Ohio, this 9th day of December, A. D. 1861.

JOHN M. MILLER. [n s] Witnesses:

J osEPH ENGEL, J. S. SILBERHORN. 

